PERFECT SEASON STILL ALIVE
Tigers Stroke Six Doubles in Season-Opening Win
Belle Plaine’s Mighty Tigers scored an emphatic victory versus Carver on Sunday, lashing 15 hits while riding a productive trio of veteran pitchers in their 11-1, 8-inning (10-run rule) victory. Carver’s visit to Tiger Park is the only such matchup this regular season, with Belle Plaine in the Carver Central League White division, and the Black Sox in the CCL Red. The teams have played twice each year previously for as far back as one (at least I) can remember.
Tigertown’s next opponent is the Green Isle Irish this Friday night—7:30pm at Green Isle—in what is being billed as “The Battle for Nate Hartmann’s Affections.” Hartmann is a Tiger rookie as well as a current member of Belle Plaine’s high school Tigers. With Hartmann now under contract, the Irish are expected to stop wooing the rookie with promises of perfectly salted popcorn, longer-than-bun-length hot dogs, and his very own personalized Green Isle pine tar rag.
Sunday will see the Big Grrr trek to Winthrop in a sure-to-be heated CCL White affair. As you may recall, it was Winthrop who ended the Tigers’ season in convincing fashion last season in the Region 4C playoffs at Arlington. Game time is 2:00pm.
Belated anniversary wishes to my grandparents, Orlando and Hilda Kruschke, who recently celebrated their 72 nd wedding anniversary. For perspective, that is over half as long as we’ve had baseball in Belle Plaine—120 (or so) years. Hoooo-ly mackerel! (Sometimes the Town & Vicinity column is just not big enough for a given week, please forgive me.)
Now let’s take a capsulated look at Tiger roster changes since last year: the Tigers will be without Daron Anderson (hiatus), Tim Huber (Marshall), and Jeff Miller (4-egg omlettes).
Returning to the fold is: Jake Creighton, Dave Feldt, Adam Hoffman, Chad Hoffman, Shane Hofmann, Dan Huber, Brett Kruschke, Pat Moriarty, Mike Murphy, Mike Schultz, Pat Schultz, Trace Selly, Randy Stender, James Thomason, Dan Weldon, Jeff Witt, Ryan Witt, and Zip Zellmann.
This year’s whipping boys, I mean rookies, are as follows: Brad Connolly, Ryan Creighton, Nate Hartmann, Cody Hiles, Jonathan Schulz, Tim Schuster, and John Solheid.
This one was tightly contested halfway through, as Belle Plaine led 2-1 with Shane Hofmann working the first five. Jeff Witt was responsible for the game’s first two runs with a two-out, two-run double in the first inning.
After that early blemish, Carver’s Joe Camel turned up the craft-o-meter and settled down. In the fifth, cleanup hitter Pat Moriarty delivered another two-out hit, a single, making it 3-1. Shortly thereafter, the floodgates opened.
El Tigre batted eight men in the sixth, plating four runs. They sent seven to the dish in the seventh for three more scratches. Dan Weldon’s one-out single in the eighth ended the contest via the 10-run rule.
Meanwhile, some astute observers were able to connect-the-dots and see that the torrent of Tiger offense directly coincided with bringing Randy Stender in to start the sixth inning, perhaps breaking Carver’s will to continue. Despite a recent conversation with Nathan Muehlenhardt, who said, “Stender still plays?!”—the Oil Man breezed through the sixth and seventh.
Zip Zellmann, no doubt inspired by the crafty Camel himself, worked a scoreless eighth to conclude three shutout innings for the BP’s Geritol Gang relief crew.
Hitting heroes for Belle Plaine were leading Comeback Player of the Year candidate Dan Weldon, who went 4-for-5 (more than one-third of his hit total from last year—seriously!); Trace Selly, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI; and Dan Huber and Nate Hartmann, who each collected two safeties.
The game also saw the major league debuts of several: Jonathan Schulz, Brad Connolly, Ryan Creighton, Cody Hiles, Tim Schuster, and the aforementioned Hartmann.
Brett Kruschke only made it look like it was his, turning in one of the worst at-bats of his 13-year career (that’s a mouthful) when he returned to the dugout as he approached it—as the Little Spanish Flea—after a wildly feeble at-bat.
This page was created and maintained by Nick Kornder, Sports Information Director at Northern State University. The views and ideas on this page are that of the author, and not those of Northern State University.